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We can see the difference between
the Modeling Light Bulb and the Flash Tube (the circular tube
surrounding the modeling bulb) in this close-up shot of the PS-300's
business end (with the reflector removed, of course).
The modeling light is especially valuable to the amateur, because
it let's us "see" exactly where the light will fall
when the strobe flashes. This feature alone is worth at least
a hundred rolls of ruined film (which you'll save by having a
modeling light)! One of the major questions (and hesitations)
I had when I was beginning to learn photography, was "If
you use strobes, how do you know what the subject will look like,
or how and where the light will illuminate the subject, if you
don't have continuous lighting to judge by?"
The answer was really simple:
You don't. UNLESS your strobes also have MODELING LIGHTS! With
modeling lights, you can see exactly where the strobe's flash
will illuminate the subject, because the modeling light falls
on the subject the same as the strobe's light will fall on the
subject (less intensely, of course)! And this is why the pros
pay lotsa money for good strobes that come with modeling lights.
That's why the professional photographer's pictures look so much
better than ours do: they have the right equipment for the job!
They can CONTROL THE LIGHT! And now, so can you.
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| PhotoSpeak: What's a "Slave Sensor?"
Well, if you had to use
a PC Cord for every strobe, just think what a mess of tangled
wires you'd have if you were using 5 or 6 or more strobes to
light your subject (as many pros do)! So, science came to our
rescue with slave sensors. It's a tiny little sensor built into
most good strobes, that sits & waits for a short, intense burst
of light. When it detects this burst of light (the flash from
another strobe), it automatically sets off the flash tube in
the strobe its built into. Voila! Now, with strobes that have
slave sensors (often just called "slaves"), we can
connect only one strobe to our cameras (with the PC or Sync cord),
usually the strobe closest to our camera, and when we press the
shutter button, firing the one connected strobe, that flash will
automatically set off all the other strobes we may be using for
that shot! Ah, ain't technology wunnerful (sic)? Even most of
the little flashes built into most modern cameras can set off
most strobes with slaves. A strobe that has PC socket, or both
a PC Socket and a slave sensor is called a "Master"
strobe; a strobe that only has a slave sensor and no PC socket
(usually less expensive units) is called a "Slave."
Whichever strobe you're using with a PC cord is referred to as
your "master" strobe for purposes of that shot. Most
of the better strobes have both PC sockets and slave sensors,
so they're more versatile and useful to us (however, there are
many very good slaves out there today, and you won't need all
your strobes to be masters, so don't hesitate to buy some decent
slaves when the time comes - and, believe me, if you stick with
photography, the time will come). |
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Complete: Each of these PS-300s comes complete
with umbrella-capable reflector, sync cord, AC cord, Flash Tube,
Modeling Light, built-in umbrella holder, and standard light
stand connector; it's ready to plug in and fire away! Since these
strobes are A.C. units, they're ready to rock! No batteries or
powerpacks or light heads or connector cords are needed; just
plug 'em in, and (just like Elvis) you're ready to rock and roll.
As with all quality strobes, these are capable of using many
additional custom accessories, of course (e.g., snoots, barn
doors, softboxes, stands, unbrellas, honeycombs, gel holders,
etc.). BTW, pros use umbrellas to "bounce" the strobe's
light off of (or sometimes through) to make the light softer,
reduce or eliminate shadows, and "mellow-out" the picture.
Softboxes (and SoftCases) and umbrellas are specifically designed
for this purpose (and yes, these are able to use custom-fitted
softboxes & softcases).
These are brand new, 100% guaranteed,
with the manufacturer's full one year warrantee . These are NOT
seconds, blemishes, or anything other than brand new, absolutely
perfect, current 2001 models! Just 'cause the price is great,
doesn't mean these are in any way less than perfect! Questions?
Requests? just e-mail any questions or requests, to me at
wryter@usa.net or check out-my web sites see
links here.-These strobes and other photographic
equipment also come with an "extra" that's not available
anywhere else, at any price whatsoever: FREE photographic education,
advice and training from MyPhotoHome.com (coming soon to a computer near you)! MPH
Members also get FREE web space (to post your own pictures),
and much, much more (when MyPhotoHome.com comes online, shortly).
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Point of Information:
Why, you might be asking yourself, have virtually all photographers
switched to using strobes, when "regular" continuous
lights (photographers call them "hot" lights) are everywhere,
and it's easier for us to see how the lighting will look with
them? Well, the continuous lights, like the ones in our houses
(tungsten lights), or halogen (and similar) are called "hot
lights" for a reason: they get hot. Really hot! And
the special photographic hot lights get twice as hot as household
bulbs! This tends to make certain things, like flowers, foods,
animals, and those darn pesky models, wilt. Especially models.
They get very, very, unhappy when they wilt. Whine, gripe, groan;
you'd think a little melting makeup, and running mascara, limp
hair, and sticky lipstick, and beads of sweat running down their
lovely curvaceous (umm, let's say noses) was a big deal or something,
the way they complain! ;-)
Next, there's a little problem
with the "color temperature" being way off with hot
lights, so we have to use special films (3200K or 3400K) or filters,
or special photographic bulbs, when using them (strobes are perfectly
balanced at 5500K to simulate sunlight, so we can use all the
regular daylight films we've come to love/hate over the years).
You'll notice that most of your pictures taken indoors without
using a flash turn out with a yellowish color cast; that's because
household lights are loaded with yellow and red light. The solution
is to either use special films, or special filters. But why create
more problems for yourself? Using strobes eliminates all these
headaches (and heat!). Also, with continuous lights, they're
always shining; usually right in our subject's eyes, causing
squinting and annoyance (and ugly looking pictures). With strobes,
nothing is shining in their eyes, and the flash is too short
to cause any of this discomfort to our beloved subjects (until
AFTER the flash, when they might be chasing all those little
light blips around the room:). Additionally, with strobes, we
can control the light much better! We can adjust the power output
with the flick of a switch. We can modify the light with umbrellas,
softboxes, softcases, filters, scrims and gobos, doo-dahs, and
thingamajigs, etc., etc. We can direct the light with barn doors,
snoots, honeycombs, and many other accessories. In short, with
strobes, we can play God with our photography; WE CAN CONTROL
THE LIGHT! And we can do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, whenever
we want, no matter what the weather is, and without regard to
daylight or night. There are yet other, more esoteric, as well
as mundane reasons why strobes are the preferred means of photographic
lighting in the modern world, but we'll pass on those things
for now. You've probably had enough information shoved down your
throat already (sorry, but I can't resist trying to educate everyone
about photography).
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Technique: BTW, I purposely made the photograph above to
show you an example of a photographic situation (perspective
distortion) that often plagues our amateur images. I used this
technique to distort the relative size of the reflector, compared
to the strobe's body. Look at the picture at the top of this
auction description (or the small one to the left); then look
at the image above. The reflector in the image above appears
larger than it really is, in relation to the body of the strobe
(compare the relative sizes of the strobe and the silver reflector).
Why does this happen? It's called "perspective distortion"
and I'll spare you the physics of the explanation, but whenever
one part of an object is closer to the camera's lens than the
other part of an object, the perspective is distorted (it's due
to the rendering of a 3 dimensional object into a 2 dimensional
image). For fun, try this: come in really close to someone's
face with your camera, and with the person's nose closest to
your lens, take a picture. When the print comes back, you'll
see the nose looks huge (compared to the rest of the face). Of
course, you can do the same with almost any object you photograph.
The lesson? Beware of holding the camera too close to your subject
(unless you want perspective distortion for some reason, like
this example, or for fun). This most often happens when we're
using wide angle lenses (since we can fit more into the frame,
we sometimes bring the camera too close to our subjects), but
it happens with all lenses. For portraiture, use somewhere between
an 85 to 135mm lens (the short telephoto range makes most faces
look better). The opposite of the perspective distortion effect
is a compression of space caused with long telephoto lenses.
If a subject really does have a large nose, shoot your victim
with a longer telephoto lens; it will compress space, and make
the nose look smaller. Just a couple more tricks up the professional
photographer's sleeve. Read on, and learn more....
Technique: The most important "secret" of good photography is the thought the photographer
puts into a picture before s/he even considers what type of film
to use! The point here is that we have to train ourselves to
think before we shoot! What color is our subject? How
can we make that color (or shade) stand out? Look at the example
